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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Warnings Out in New England

When I first found out about the Warning Out of Jonas Joslin from a distant cousin, I had no idea what a “Warning Out” was. After having read various articles online and the introduction in “Vermont Warnings Out” by Alden M. Rollins (Picton Press, Camden, Maine, no date) I've decided that the basic premise seems to be that town selectmen were taking precautions so that they would not be held responsible for caring for new inhabitants coming into their town.

An article on Wikipedia states that warning out was a widespread method for established New England communities to pressure or coerce "outsiders" to settle elsewhere. It consisted of a notice ordered by the Board of Selectmen of a town, and served by the constable upon any newcomer who might become a town charge. When a person was warned out of a town, they were not necessarily forcibly removed.

There was a distinction between a resident and an inhabitant of a town. Apparently, simply living in an area made you a resident, but to become an inhabitant required being a resident for a year. If, within that year, the person was not “warned out” they would then become an inhabitant and would thus be allowed to remain in the town. By warning out residents, the town would be spared any future liability for the resident in case of poverty.

According to Warning Out by Darrell A. Martin, A "warning out" was simply a legal formality. Regardless of whether the person or family departed, the warning served to absolve the town of any future responsibility, and so whether the person warned out actually left made no difference. Some warnings really were issued to transient indigents, and some went to folks who were just passing through on their way somewhere else. On many occasions, perhaps even in the majority of cases, the person warned out settled in town, bought property, and in all respects became a productive member of the community.

Also according to Mr. Martin, the warning “frequently included every member of the family, by name” but in the records I saw in the Charlotte Town Records, very few entries, if any, included names of other family members – they simply listed a single individual, presumed to be the head of household.

An interesting article by Brian Deming is Warning Out – Casting Out the Poor. Mr. Deming states:In Colonial New England, each town was responsible for the care of its own widows, orphans, elderly, disabled, hungry, and sick. Every town seemed to make some effort to see to it that no one starved or froze to death. Some towns arranged to pay willing citizens to take in the destitute. To be eligible for charity, a person had to be a legal "inhabitant" of a town. An inhabitant was anyone born in the town. One could also become an inhabitant by acquiring land in the town, by completing service as an apprentice to a master in the town, or by marrying an inhabitant. Anyone not a legal inhabitant was not eligible for welfare and could be warned out.

A person could be warned out without being forced to leave a town. Many towns had a policy that, if you had not been warned out in more than a year, you were officially an inhabitant and therefore eligible for welfare. So some towns would routinely warn out “outsiders” that they thought might be likely to fall into poverty and even those doing well. Those individuals could remain in the town even after being warned out year after year. Some even established businesses. It was thus possible for a person to pay taxes in a town for years to help others in need, but then after bad luck be ineligible for welfare in that same town because they themselves had been warned out.

Excellent post, Becky, and I am amazed at the timing. I've been reading a lot about colonial life lately, and although the subject of warning out hadn't come up in my reading, something else triggered some questions about it in my mind and... POOF!... like magic, here is your post with answers to all my questions and more, like a big info feast on a silver platter. Thanks!

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I am a GeneaHistorian and Native Hoosier who grew up in rural Kosciusko County. I served in the US Navy 1969-1979 in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Iceland, California, and Japan. What will you find here at kinexxions? A bit of Family History, Genealogy, Research Tips, Photography, Travel, and whatever else catches my interest! My Hoosier ancestors were in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Miami, Switzerland and Whitley counties.

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1. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). In other words, give me credit for my work! That means including my name, Becky Wiseman, the title of the blog post and the URL of the specific blog post being used.>

2. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

3. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

In addition, it would be nice if you would send an email to kinexxions@gmail.com to let me know you are using my content. You never know, I may have more information you could use - or perhaps you might have information that I don't have.

I am more than happy to share my work. However, lots of time and energy has gone into this family history research and it 'ticks me off' to see my hard work in someone else's online tree or website and they make it appear to be their own work. If you do that, and I find out about it, you will be contacted!

The content of this site cannot be used for commercial purposes without explicit permission from the author and blog owner. This includes blogs with ads and income generating features and/or blogs or sites using feed content as a replacement for original content. Complete content usage is prohibited.

Unless otherwise noted, photographs used on this blog are mine. If you would like to use a photograph from this blog, please ask for permission before you use it. Besides, most of the photographs that are posted are low resolution. Better quality versions are available upon request.

As with any genealogical project this is a "Work in Progress" and the possibility does exist that it could contain errors, hopefully, not many.

Source information for each post is available upon request. Ask me and I'll provide the information.Please contact me if you are have an interest in any of the families presented here at kinexxions.